Inglewood High School current basketball team members and administrators join Reggie Theus, second from right, at his recent tribute retiring his jersey at the school auditorium on Nov. 12. Kenneth D. Miller Photo
Sentinels Finally Honor Reggie Theus
Basketball legend Reggie Theus told a jammed Inglewood High School Auditorium that he always left his phone number with the school but nobody ever called.
That call came to Theus on Wednesday November 12 when Inglewood Mayor James Butts joined basketball coach Patrick Roy and some of Theus’ high school teammates in a ceremony retiring his No. 24 jersey.
Butts told the students that the ceremony, which occurred nearly 40 years after Theus last donned a Sentinels uniform “was long overdue.”
Currently the head basketball coach for Cal State Northridge, Theus was among the first Black students to attend Inglewood High School in 1973 and eventually became a flamboyant scoring machine averaging 28.5 points per game.
He was Magic Johnson with model looks way before Johnson burst onto the basketball scene, a 6’7 guard who could score and pass the ball like a wizard.
Reggie is a player that could do it ALL, score, pass and rebound,” said Johnson in his tribute statement to Theus.
His collegiate coach, the UNLV’s legendary Jerry Tarkanian hailed Theus as, “one of the finest basketball players from Southern California’s historic past.”
He led the Runnin’ Rebels to their first Final Four, and eventually became the first student-athlete from Inglewood High to make it to the professional ranks when Theus was the No. 9 draft pick of the Chicago Bulls in 1978.
Theus finished second in the NBA Rookie of the Year balloting, averaging 16 points per game and played 13 years in the NBA appearing in two All Star games and is one of two players in NBA history taller that 6’6 to tally more 750 assist. The other is Magic Johnson. Blessed with model looks, he dabbled in television for eight years and made two film appearances before returning his first love… basketball.
It was former Fremont High and Cal State Los Angeles head coach Dave Yanai who gave Theus his first opportunity to become a coach when he served as a volunteer.
Yanai remembered Theus from his days at Fremont during the Inglewood Holiday Classic and while his Pathfinders defeated Theus Sentinels, he came away with awe for the remarkable talents he witnessed.
Prominent college coach Rick Pitino hired him as an assistant with Louisville and he got his first head-coaching job with the New Mexico State Aggies where he led his team into the NCAA tournament in 2006.
The Sacramento Kings hired him a year later to become their head coach, landing him his first NBA coach job.
It’s pretty amazing that this is all happening because I always gave my number to the school here and nobody ever called,” he said. “Now, its under this administration that they have reached out to me, so I’m really grateful to that.”
He recognized his wife Elaine and two daughters Rhyan and Raquel who accompanied him during his tribute, and chimed he scored 40 points against Crenshaw when Elaine was a student there.
So, we won the game and I won the girl.”
The once high school sweethearts also share a son Reggie Jr. who is playing for South Carolina University.
Reggie became emotional when he began discussing his older sister Crystal who served as his guardian when his mother and father divorced when he was five years old.
We used to pile eight deep in her Volkswagen just to get to games,” he recalled. “She was at every game, no matter where it was. She always told me that she knew I would be famous and that she would be coming to see me someplace.”
It was a long enduring journey. One where he grew almost six inches from his freshman to his junior year in high school.
One, where in 1975 when he was at Inglewood and Roy Hamilton was starring at Verbum Dei, that he never though it would be Hamilton to hire him for his first television job at Fox.
However, when you are Reggie Theus and who live your life with the same commitment and dedication that you had to the game of basketball, people will notice you, and as for Inglewood High School they will never forget you, even if it takes 40 years to get around to it.
